Smile
by I-survived-life
Summary: Through the years, James Potter developed a habit of making Lily Evans smile no matter how much she wanted to glare at him.


James Potter had one of the biggest crushes on Lily Evans to ever exist. Over the course of seven years, he'd asked her out constantly, never put off by the fact that she kept saying no. He figured that she had to say yes at some point, right? You couldn't keep denying a person, eventually you'd have to give in.

Lily Evans had one of the strongest wills he'd ever seen because in seven years, not once had she ever hesitated in saying no to his request to a date. In fact, at this point, at this point, it was practically a reflex to say no.

The first time that James had asked Lily out was around in third year and Lily had looked surprised. James Potter asking her out was the last thing that she'd expected and before she'd even thought about answering, the word "no" had left her lips. She thought that would be the last time that he asked her out but she was yet again surprised when he asked her out a few weeks later.

Through the course of the next four years, Lily Evans had said no to James Potter with a list of emotions. At first it was surprised, then it was annoyed, then it was angry and finally it was with surprised again.

At first she was surprised that he'd asked her out; she became annoyed when he wouldn't stop asking her out. She was angry when he continued to ask her out because it was getting on her nerves and finally, at the end of sixth year, she said in surprise again. Lily Evans was surprised that after all those times of her saying no, James was still asking her for a date.

If that wasn't persistence then she didn't know what was.

When Lily arrived for her seventh year, trunk full of books and Head Girl, she was prepared to say no to James Potter when he asked her the same question he'd been asking since third year. Throughout the entire train ride and dinner, she'd expected him to ask her out and she was nervous as to how he was going to do it. James never settled for sweet and quiet, he went for big, extravagant and eye-catching.

In James's opinion, what better to show the person that you care for how much you like them by going big? In his mind, what was the point of telling someone you liked them if you didn't show them exactly how much you liked them and what you would do to impress them and show them that you'd do anything for them.

Lily Evans had disagreed but slowly, the big gestures grew on her.

What Lily wasn't expecting was James Potter to be Head Boy and for him to not ask her out on a date not once that entire year. By the time the end of January came around, Lily Evans was worried for James Potter's mental state of health.

So far in the entire year he hadn't asked out Lily not once. Lily decided to confront him about it and demand an answer. What the hell was wrong with him? James was breaking tradition and though Lily wouldn't admit it, she missed the fact that James always asked her out.

She was annoyed with him for not asking her out and she was even more annoyed by the fact that she felt disappointed, of all things, because he hadn't asked her out. Lily kept cursing her stomach for having a weird reaction to James and erupting in butterflies whenever he was near. She hated that this warmth kept spreading through her whenever James smiled at her and out of all these, what Lily hated most was that she wanted to grab James Potter and snog his bloody brains out.

Lily found herself smiling like a total fool for no reason when James was around her. She got up in the morning actually happy instead of a grouch. Just the thought of James made Lily smile so big her friends thought there was something wrong with her.

She refused to believe that she might be falling for James Potter. Lily would've burst into hysterical laughter if someone had told her that before seventh year. Now, Lily was slightly worried that anyone who told her that would be right.

Nah, it was probably just the flu.

"Potter!" Lily yelled as she walked into the common room.

"We need to talk," she said grabbing James by the arm and dragging him up the stairs to the dorm that James had all to himself at the top of the boys dormitories. She completely missed the panicked look on James' face. He obviously thought that he'd done something wrong but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

Lily shoved James into his room, shut the door behind them and locked it. She turned around and glared at James, it looked as if she was about to accuse him of acting weird.

Oh no wait, that's exactly what Lily was doing.

"Potter, all you all right?"

"I'm fine Lily, are you all right?" James asked Lily with a concerned look on his face. This was the last thing that James had expected to come out of Lily's mouth, he thought she would yell at him. Lily completely ignored the question and instead asked another one.

"You've been acting weird all year, are you sure you don't have a mental problem?"

"You'd think I'd have noticed that I had a mental problem by now wouldn't you?" James said dryly.

"No, I mean what's wrong with you, you haven't asked me out all year," Lily didn't care how the question might have sounded and she was too focused on James to start blushing at what she had just blurted out. James' face became hard however and his posture stiff.

"Lily, when I asked you out all those times, it wasn't a game for me, I really meant it. I thought -and I still do- think that you're the nicest, smartest and most attractive girl that I've ever known. It may have looked like I was joking around but I wasn't. It's not easy taking rejection so many times, especially when you mocked and made fun of me most of the time," James said his face softening into a sad expression.

Lily wanted to believe that James was lying but no matter what she told herself, something in Lily's gut told her that James was being honest. There was a sincerity in his voice that she'd never heard before and she knew that as soon as they left this room, James would act as if this had never happened.

That was the final thing that broke through Lily's barriers that were keeping away her realisations of what she felt for James. That's all that it took to make Lily Evans see that she wanted James Potter more than anything else.

All the nice things that James had done last year and this year. All the second years he'd helped when they had trouble with Transfiguration. The little first year that he'd carried to the hospital when they injured themselves during the flying lesson. He'd put a stop to the fifth year that had bullied a little second year.

If Lily hadn't known better, she would've been a puddle of goo on the floor by now. Damn James and his stupid charm! Damn him and his stupid sincerity! Damn him and his stupid kindness! Look what he'd turned Lily into.

Lily couldn't believe how much she'd turned into a pile of goo at the hands of a handsome boy. And it was James Potter no less. And just think, she'd been making fun of those types of girls not twenty-four hours ago.

Lily marched toward James, still pretending to look angry.

"James Potter, you ask me out this instant," Lily said standing in front of James with her hands on her hips. The look on James's face went from shock to anger.

"No Lily, I'm not asking you out," James said angrily. "I'm not taking anymore rejection from you."

"Do it!"

"I am not going to set myself up for rejection just so that princess Lily can have her life go back to normal. I told you, this wasn't a game for me!"

"Please, please ask me out," Lily said walking forward and taking James's hands in hers. She decided to take a different approach to what she was doing. "Please James, will you please ask me out."

At the use of his first name, James gave in. The things he would do for this girl. He was expecting to regret what he was about to do. Have to deal with rejection yet again. He groaned to himself for what he was about to do, called himself an idiot before saying the words that Lily wanted to hear,

"Lily Evans, will you be my girlfriend?" James asked Lily resignedly.

"No."

"I thought so -"

"No, I meant you're not doing it right. You've got to do it like you usually do it. Big, extravagant, it has to catch people's attention."

"Is that so that you can humiliate me in front of everyone?" James asked the anger coming back into his voice. Sometimes he thought Lily Evans just wasn't worth it.

"No, that's not why. If it wasn't big and extravagant then it wouldn't be very James Potter now would it? That's not how James Potter does things now is it," Lily said smiling. James shot her a confused look before nodding, what for, James wasn't sure. He did admit that he had a tendency to go over the top with things though.

"I'll see you tomorrow okay?" James nodded again and Lily left.

She didn't know when James was going to ask her out again. All she knew was that it had to be big and eye-catching. Lily assumed it would take a few days for James to come up with what he was going to do.

The last thing she expected was to be asked out the next morning.

Lily made her way down to breakfast as usual, she hummed to herself and smiled at people when she passed them. She had no idea why she was so happy this morning. It just seemed like everything would work out.

Lily ate her breakfast slowly while at the same time noticing the Great Hall fill students really quickly. Just as she was sipping her orange juice, the morning owls came in. Lily watched them and waited for the owls to go to their respective owners and to see if any owl was heading her way; her mother usually wrote her even if Petunia didn't. To her surprise, fifteen owls carrying a very large banner stopped in front of her. Lily stared at them in confusion, her expression quickly turning to surprise and shock when the owls dropped the bottom of the banner so that it fell open.

Dozens and dozens of lilies fell down and landed in front of Lily. She looked at the lilies that covered her plate and slowly raised her eyes to the banner.

_Lily Evans would you pretty please, with a giant cherry on top, be my girlfriend?_

_Love Forever,_

_The Git_

Lily couldn't help but grin at the message.

"Well, Lily?" a voice behind her asked. "Is this big enough for you?"

Lily turned around and looked at James Potter, noticing the sad smile that he was wearing and the single lily flower that he was holding. Her expression was still one of shock and for a moment she couldn't do anything but stare at him with her mouth open.

Finally, she snapped out of it and got out of her seat and stood in front of James Potter, looking at the lily that he was carrying. She didn't even notice the entire hall watching.

"Will you Lily Evans be my girlfriend?" James asked her. He was fully prepared for Lily to say no, he was prepared for her to laugh at him and then say no and watch as the entire hall laughed and he was humiliated. He was prepared to walk away in shame, with his head down back to his friends who would say 'I told you so'.

What he wasn't prepared for however was Lily Evans literally throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him with everything she had.

He stood there frozen in shock, with his eyes wide as Lily kissed him fiercely and pulled herself closer to him. It took about ten seconds for James to snap back into reality and respond. He held Lily close to him, so close that had Lily not been focused on snogging the absolute hell out of James, she would've winced in pain.

Well, James was never letting Lily go now.

James was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that Lily was kissing him voluntarily. In fact, she had thrown herself at him. He couldn't believe this was really happening. He'd been dreaming of this happening since third year and now it finally was.

Lily finally pulled her face away from James and stood gasping for air. Her face barely an inch away from James's. She grinned widely at the look on James' face and said,

"Does that answer your question?"

"Just about," James said now grinning also.

* * *

**a/n: **_i had the urge to write a James/Lily one-shot and so i did. nothing big, just something that i thought would be cute and such. anyway, i hope you jily shippers out there like this and even if you don't . . . well, i like it so heh._

_this was based on the song smile by uncle kracker and this song belongs to him and not me so don't sue me!_

_let me know what you thought of it!_


End file.
